George Street Party
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Well here’s some news – George danced in public last night!We were part of the world’s largest “strip the willow” on George’s Street, along with several other tourists and lots of kilted locals. Considering there were thousands of people there, it was amazing how organized it was. It all started on the “Mound” below the Castle, where hundreds of people joined ceremonial piping regiments in a parade up to George’s street, followed by five or six Catalan drum and piping bands, and actors and dancers in Catalan festival costume.
It was odd to see these Spanish costumes and larger than life puppets dancing to bagpipe music… The best costumed puppets by far were the dragons that kept charging through the crowds of high spirited revelers like velosoraptors (sp?), scattering startled happy dancing partyers in their wake. Given the reputation this national party has, it was pleasantly surprising to find that nobody was drunkenly out of control. We half expected to have to tip toe through the puke, but it wasn’t like that at all…the out-of-control drunks seemed to be confined to their natural territories – the pubs.
We spent yesterday afternoon at the theater, watching “My Fair Lady”. It was pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. I had a hard time not singing along to all the songs – I’m sure the people beside us would not have approved… Regardless, it was great to see Alfred P. Doolittle give his line of rhetoric about the “undeserving poor” to Professor Higgins on stage. Of course the stage production leaves the relationship between Eliza and the Professor unresolved at the end, which I like better than a neat, happy ending – it reflects a touch of reality better than the Disnification of plot lines we see so often.
Today is the big party day – the party on Princes Street and the fireworks from the Castle. We met some of the other guests at the bed & breakfast we’re staying at, and they were full of advice for us… they’ve been coming back for years. We had to inform them that we didn’t have cell phones to keep in contact in the crowd, as cell phones from Marathon are useless outside Marathon. We also met Cookie, the house dog – a beautiful Collie/Spaniel mix. She was two years old, and better behaved than any two year old dog we’ve ever met. We’ll let you know how tonight’s party went some time tomorrow. (We were informed that breakfast is from 10:00 – 11:00 tomorrow, rather than the usual 8:00 – 9:00. The guests from Scotland think this is a lay-in; they were laughing at the guests from England who hadn’t gotten up for breakfast this morning).
We’re off to explore the town on the other side of the Castle…
Noel & George
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